Boys golf: Eagles begin state tourney play today

ARGYLE —
On two occasions over the next two days, Argyle senior Blake Lyle will step up
to hole No. 8 at Austin’s Jimmy Clay Golf Couse, the same hole that devoured
his driver last spring in the state tournament.

Lyle, by
his coach’s account, smoked his tee shot down the middle of the course. But as
he whipped the club around, the driver snapped in half and the club was no
more.

This year
there’s a different driver in Lyle’s bag, a club amongst a set amongst five
players looking to erase last year’s disappointment from their memories.

Like
Lyle’s driver, the team faltered down the stretch of last year’s state
tournament. The Argyle boys team returns to Jimmy Clay this year to compete for
the Class 3A championship.

The
two-day, 36-hole tournament including 12 schools is scheduled to begin today at
about 8 a.m.

“Last
year we left on a sour note,” Argyle senior Hunter Thompson said. “The last
nine holes were pretty rough as a team, so it’s just exciting to get back out
there and start back up and hope to finish this one strong — start strong and
finish strong.”

Lyle and
Thompson are the only seniors on Argyle’s five-man squad. Juniors Nick Louy and
Colton Katzen and sophomore Lance Roden will join them for the trip.

In last
season’s run, the team finished the first day in second place with a score of
309, six strokes off the lead.

“We
didn’t play as well as we could have the second day,” Argyle coach Brady Bell
said. “I think that was huge motivation to the guys. As a group of five, they
had an opportunity to come back this year and make amends.”

Lyle is
planning to walk on at Florida Atlantic next year. He led Argyle at the state
tournament last year and finished 12th overall. When his driver snapped on the
second day, he had to use somebody else’s 3-wood, and it wasn’t the same.

But
Lyle’s equipment failure wasn’t the only problem on a day when things weren’t
going right for the whole team. The Boca Raton-bound senior said there were
some positive things to take out of last year’s struggles.

“I just
think we haven’t been in that situation before, and different people handled it
differently,” Lyle said. “I had the driver snap and I was using someone else’s,
and other people just encountered different types of adversity, but I think it
was a good experience to learn from.”

Every
weekend, the quintet hit Denton Country Club and played the same five-man game.
Thompson said it’s something he and Lyle have done for four years, and any of
the five can come out on top.

The
team’s overall consistency was evident when Argyle won its first regional championship
this year. The four lowest individual scores are counted to make up the team
score, and the odd score out was a 77.

“When you
throw out a 77, you’re having a pretty good round,” Bell said.

Thompson
said that between the five starters and two reserves, the team’s depth is what
makes the Eagles potent.

“That’s
the beauty of our golf team,” Thompson said. “All five — and even six and seven
— it can be anyone’s day. Seven days a week, it could be seven different people
winning a round of golf.”

On Tuesday
afternoon, luggage and golf clubs waited outside the Argyle gym for their
owners to stow them on the team’s small yellow bus.

The
journey for the team started a long time ago, after its final round of last
year’s state tournament. Lyle said a win in this year’s tournament would serve
as a sign that the Eagles have matured.

“That
would mean a lot, because that would just show how much we learned from last
year and how much work we put in for this year,” Lyle said. “It would mean a
lot for everybody on the team.”

BEN BABY can be reached at 940-566-6869 and
via Twitter at @Ben_Baby.

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